


Til the Sun Dies

by asongstress1422



Series: Fire in the Stars [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, Injured Kylo, Kylo Ren Redemption, Mr. Darcy - Freeform, Protective Rey (Star Wars), Protective!Kylo, Romance, The Force, fight, hurt!Kylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 03:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14584272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asongstress1422/pseuds/asongstress1422
Summary: Ben Solo's appearance at the Resistance base goes less then smooth. Good thing Rey is there and has his back.





	Til the Sun Dies

**Author's Note:**

> Part 6. 
> 
> Title and emotion comes from song Little Do You Know by Alex and Sierra.
> 
> I've had this thought since reading 'the bones' by spqr and 'People Will Say' by ReyloTrashCompactor (NextToSomething)
> 
> **was rereading this and made some edits

Rey is standing around a table in a canvas tent looking over maps of old rebellion outposts. She and the group around her discussing which are likely to have already been picked over and which might be worth chancing a supply run. Weeks of silence from the bond left her in a stupor, half glad Kylo was respecting her wishes and leaving her be away while a darker, meaner side hates him for being yet another person to leave her. So when a stray tingle ran its way up her spine it catches her off guard.

“Rey,” Finn questions concerned following her riveted gaze to the weak sunlight breaking through the parted tent door, "what’s wrong?”

“I--” she doesn’t know how to explain the achingly familiar feeling waking up in her chest so she doesn’t. Instead she allows it to draw through the tent flap into the cold damp air of D’Qar. Her eye sweep the area searching for something that couldn’t be there.

Deep green mountains break through the dense clouds in the distance, the wind making them look ethereal. The immediate area around the base is over run with tents and people as they mill about, moving like honey-bees in the hive where everyone has a purpose and a place. After so much loss the Resistance still keeps functioning and Rey can’t help a sad smile.

Then the feeling comes again, a gentle caress that strums over her mind, an almost physical touch against her cheek, and she turns towards it.

He’s there, striding through the waist high grass at the edge of camp black robes flaring out behind him with each step. Mask gone. Gloves gone. Eyes piercing her’s across the distance.

As if drawn by an invisible cord everything fades to the background as she moves to meet him. They stand there, in the center of camp, staring at each other. Carefully, fearing it too good to be true, Rey reaches out and lays a hand on his chest. He’s solid, and warm, and she can feel his heart beat beneath her fingertips.

“You’re here,” she whispers awed, tears prickling her eyes.

His hand comes up cupping the side of her face, “I’m sorry about Mica.”

Actions put to words. She envelops him in her arms gripping him with all of her might and he holds her back just as hard.

“Rey get back!” Their moment, as quiet as it is, is short lived and reality crashed down as they turn to see Finn aiming a blaster at the leader of the First Order. 

They act on pure instinct, Ben shifting to block Rey at the same time she lunges to protect him. He glares at her, silently demanding she get behind him. She glares right back forcing herself infront. ‘ _Finn would never shoot me,’_ she hisses in her mind. _‘You on the other hand…’_

“Finn,” she says keeping her body between them as she walks forward, “put the blaster down.”

Her friend hesitates, eyes darting as he trying to find an angle around her. “He’s dangerous, Rey! He’ll lead the First Order right to us!”

Before Ben can open his mouth to defend himself Rey beats him to it. “No. They may be coming here but it will not be because of him.”

“Did _he_ tell you that?” Finn spits, glaring over her shoulder at the man as his hand tightening around the blaster. “And you believe him?”

She shifts back into his line of sight, demanding his attention, as she inches closer, “yes.”

Finn looks away angerly, hating the truthful note in her voice. He tries once more to get her to see reason, “all the death and destruction that he’s caused--”

“Will not be wiped clean by coming here.” She lays a hand on his clenched fist, not going for the blaster but now close enough to disarm him if he tries to use it. Not that he would with it pointed straight at her heart. “I understand that, Finn. So does he. But this is a start. Let’s not end it in bloodshed," she begs. "Please.”

He looks down at her, indecision clear on his face before with a sigh he holsters his weapon.

They had gathered quite the crowded so it was no surprise when the sound of drumming feet could be heard. Someone had gone for the guards and they were coming in force.

She turned to Ben intending to stand beside him but he held out a hand to ward her off. “Stay with Finn,” he ordered and a look passed between the two men that she didn’t care for at all.

“But--”

“Come on, Rey,” Finn urges drawing her away but she only go as far as the edge of the crowed. The tension in the air too cloying for her to feel right leaving Ben completely alone as the guards flooded the area, encircling him.

Ben raises his hands and voice to be heard, “I am Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order. I’ve come to surrender myself to the Resistance for the war time crimes I have committed including, but not limited to, torture, abduction, patricide, the direct and indirect orders that lead to the death of millions of men, women, and children and the full destruction of three planets. I submit myself to your justice.”

The guards close in on him their gun trained on the on his head. “Get on the ground and keep your hands up!”

Ben complies with little fanfare and it is Poe that steps forward to secured the cuffs around his wrists. Looking down at the bound man. Too late Rey sees the hate and anger ignited in her friend's eyes before he halls back and punches Ben in the face. “You son of a bitch!”

“No!” Rey screamed trying to get to him but Finn holds her back. As she struggles she realizes it's not just Finn's physical hold keeping her immobile but also an invisible wall of the force. Ben keeping her from coming to his aid as the rest of the guards join in by egging on their commander from the sidelines.  

“He’s not fighting back!” Rey cries as Poe kicks him in the stomic. “Stop it! He’s not fighting back!”

They were hurting him. She watches as Ben flinches and withers but never once tries to dodge a blow or even to attack in turn. Time slows down for Rey, her own anger growing in her chest. They were keeping her from him and they were hurting him.

With a roar Rey sends a blast of her own force signature through Ben’s wall, like a battering ram, blasting its way through the barrier at the same time she used several moves she learned from the desert to tear from Finn’s hold and sprint through the breach she made. She sprints the short distance separating them in three bounds, throwing herself infront of Ben and shielding him with her outstretched arms as she stares down Poe’s incoming fist.

There is barely a second for shock to registered on Poe’s face as she took the place of his enemy before an arm is wrapped around her waist, lifting and twisting her out of harm's way. She blinked over the broad shoulder to see Poe suspended in the air, choking over an invisible hold. The force suppressant cuffs they had secured Ben into hung by a mangle link from his outstretched wrist.

As a wave the resistance fighters raised their blasters in defense of their captain. With a snarl and a gesture of her own Rey uses the force to freeze them all so no one would be able to get off a shot and escalate things further.

“What is the meaning of this!” The angry words break over the crowd like a bark of thunder.

General Ortega. Rey breathes a sigh of relief letting her force hold drop, ignoring the fearful looks the men shoot her as she still guards Ben’s left flank. Leia was here, she'd take care of everything.

“Ben,” Leia ordered, “let Dameron go.”

“He was going to hurt her,” he snarled, eyes locked on the choking man with a feral rage.

Before Leia could order him again, and then be forced to use other means when he ignored her, Rey reached around his protective arm to turn his face to hers. “Let him go.”

He wasn’t going to, she could see it in his eyes. So she laid her chin on his shoulder, letting her other arm come around him to curl at his hip. Breathing out, she sent out a surge of peace and calm through their bond, letting him know she was fine and it was time to let the danger pass. "No more bloodshed."

Poe fell to the ground gasping. Ben collapsed back, burying his face awkwardly in her neck as she caught him and eased him against her chest. She laid a hand on his sternum sending out her force through his nerves to assess the damages to his body.

Leia walked forward, stepping around Poe as a few of his men helped him to stand. “We need to get him into holding,” she told Rey indicating her son.

Rey gently shook her head so not to disturb Ben, “he needs medical. At least two ribs are cracked, he’s a bit dazed and something’s wrong with his right knee, it won't support his weight.”

Leia surveyed the damage her son had done while half disable because someone dared tried to lay a hand on Rey and shook her head, not sure if she should be proud or concerned about the man he had become. She turned and ordered one of her staffers to get a stretcher and EMT unit to their location.

“I’m staying with him,” Rey said running gentle fingers through Ben’s long black hair, learning the real texture for what had always been stunted in their connections. He relaxed against her.

“That’s not the best idea,” the general cautioned.

She looked up at Leia, a woman she respected, a leader she never would have thought of disobeying and spoke slowly so her words would not be misunderstood again, “I am staying with him.”

“Right,” Leia sighed, knowing when a fight was not worth the given outcome.

It turned out to be for the best. The EMT’s were hesitant to touch Kylo Ren, well away of the horror stories that surrounded the First Order’s hunting dog. Against Rey’s wishes it was decided to sedate him as it was the only way the medical staff would consent to working on him.

Rey was never more than a few feet away during the hours of x-rays, exams and treatments. She kept a running monologue of what was happening coursing through their bond. Though the medicine was keeping him under he was aware of outside stimuli and having a needle jabbed in ones arm was not pleasant. Keeping him informed kept him from fighting the drug and let the doctors do what they needed to help him.

Finally they rolled him into the recovery wing and left them alone. Poe was in the same medward, a bacta soaked cloth wrapped around his throat. Still too angry to see straight, Rey set about ignoring him.

But that wasn’t Poe Dameron's style.

“I want to know why?” he demanded from his own bed two empty cots down, his voice horse. “Did you fall for his pretty looks? I thought you were better than that. He’s a monster, Rey.”

“He wasn’t the one that beat a bound man senseless,” she growled over her shoulder refusing to turn around and look at him.

“Maybe not this time but he has in the past,” Poe spat.

“The past does not excuse what you did today. You saw for yourself that he made no motion to attack, even when he clearly could.”

“I don’t trust him.”

“Then don’t!” she yelled turning around on her chair to glare at him. “No one is forcing you to.”

“Him being here is going to cause problems,” he said calmly, staring down his nose at her.

“Oh, kriff off,” she shook her head turning back around.

“He’s killed whole worlds for the First Order!”

“I know,” she said her eyes tracing the purple bruising under his eyes, his aquiline nose, the scar bisecting his face. “But he’s here now.”

“Rey--”

“I’ve made my decision, Poe,” she told her friend firmly not taking her eyes off Ben, “and so has he. You don’t have to like it but we both know you wont be the one to change my mind. I suggest you leave it.”

“You are going to regret this,” Poe preached, hating that she was going to destroy herself.

“Only time will tell.”

* * *

 It must have been late. Most of the lights were on reserved power, and her body felt heavy with sleep, when she feels gentle fingers in her hair. She know the exact second he realizes she’s awake because the carding stops. The both sit in silence hoping to keep the peace between them for just a second longer. 

“Why did you stop me?” she finally whispers softly, rolling her head on her crossed arms to look at him. “They could have killed you and I would have had to stand there and watch until it was too late.”

“I’m fine,” he wheezes through a cracked lip.

“Don’t you dare lie to me,” she growled sitting up, eyes going feral.

He looked up at the ceiling, as if he couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes. “I couldn’t allow you to be hurt again because of me. They were so full of blood lust. You wouldn’t have been able to stop them, you would have only been caught in the middle.”

“That’s where I chose to be. And no one; not you, not your mother, not the whole of the Resistance, gets to keep me from where I chose to stand.”

“Rey--”

“You came back, do you regret that decision?” she demanded.

He met her hard stare, his eyes sad, “I will if that decisions harms you in anyway.”

She took his head in her hands, "life hurts, Ben. I’d much rather live it, here, with you, to the best of our abilities. That is _my_ decision. What’s yours?”

* * *

They were laying in bed. The cot too small for two bodies but they’ve dealt with smaller. Hands tracing patterns on naked skin as they memorizing faces for what felt like the fist time. Trying to find any disparities between what was real and tangible to the carbon copies that was sent through their bond.  

His lips were slightly chapped, the texture new but ghostly familiar. Kissing is difficult because of the cut but they make it work.

The breath against his neck is warm as she gasps, where before it was only the hint of pressure across memory and trillion of miles of space.

Peace is new to the both of them but as anything between them, when the choice is made they dive deep and hold on with everything they are.

* * *

“Why did you turn me down when I first asked?” he asked, his voice barely breaking the quiet.

The night on the Supremacy rushes through her mind. The anger, the fear, the reverent rise of hope and the crushing defeat that followed. “Because you didn’t choose me.”

“Of course I chose you. I would have given you everything.”

“No, you _chose_ the First Order, you _wanted_ me.” She turned slightly to stare at the ceiling, half a shoulder hanging off the edge of the mattress. “I wanted to say yes. Even knowing you were choosing the First Order and would continue to choose the First Order over me, I want to say yes. And I almost did.” She closes her eyes against the tears forming at the memory. “It was actually you, with your words, that gave me the strength to deny you, to ‘let go’ as it were.”

He turned her face back to him, his thumb whipping at her tears, “I’m always the one making you cry, aren't I.”

She didn't say anything but her eyes did not deny the truth. He pulled her into a kiss and she followed.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought and if you've read the other part or not :) I really enjoy reading all comments!
> 
> ps. let me know of any additional taggs this could fall under. Please and thank you!


End file.
